Ji Daiyu was expecting many things from the trial, but her current situation was far from any she painted herself in.
Everything was dark, an all consuming void of nothingness embraced her, gently caressing everything it touched. She had never felt this lost before in her life.
The other illusions had been fairly easy to break out of, even if she suspected that she took far too long, though she had no way of being sure as she had no way of telling the other Novices' progress.
Daiyu continued gazing into the darkness and began focusing on the familiar feeling of her spirit coursing through her. It was hard to grasp, as if she was back to being a fresh Initiate, the sensation just on the tip of her fingers and yet infinitely far away. She let all other senses fade away, fully embracing the ebb and flow of her spirit, the soft waves she knew danced through her body.
Slowly, at a turtle's pace, feeling began returning, and she was aware of the entanglements of her spirit once more. It was not fighting, warring, like it should against the intruders, like it did in previous illusions. Instead, her spirit had welcomed the illusion, letting the spirit flow with it and cloud her senses, robbing her of her rationality for precious moments.
She shuddered, forcing the foreign spirit from her, once again regaining her full awareness, and finally opened her eyes.
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"Hey, Daiyu has finally got out of the illusion." Xiao Bao swerved her head to the side and pointed at the younger girl, who looked like she just emerged from cold water.
Ren had noticed too, fixing the blue-eyed girl with his gaze. It took her a moment to compose herself, but as she noticed the people around her sitting in meditative positions, she too assumed one.
"I wonder, has she noticed the trial is not pausing for everyone to finish with the illusions?" Ren asked, speaking out his question to no one in particular.
Daiyu was one of the last to successfully emerge from the illusions, even after Ling Sen and Little Fatty, who previously were behind her in progress. Already a few Novices had started on the second test, spirit leaving their body and collecting the flame that hid itself in their circle, and each time it hid it was harder to sense.
None had passed this part of the trial, yet.
"By this point, even the last stragglers will be done with the first part either way, and the first will start on fighting. Not noticing will be a challenge to be sure, by then." Zhi Mu's voice rang out. It sounded almost a little irritated to Ren's ears.
Darkhaven gave the three of them an amused expression, and continued watching the trial without commenting further.
Daiyu's spirit was stirring, just like those others who began to conquer the sensing part of the trial. It was honestly quite remarkable how she compared with the other Novices when it came to sensing the surrounding spirit. Ren supposed that he hadn't noticed it before as he himself was able to sense with far more accuracy, and though he knew that this sensitivity was special, he believed that a test of this order was like a walk in the park.
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She had captured the first flame, a tiny smile gracing her lips before a concentrated expression took its place once more.
Soon she overtook Ling Sen and Little Fatty, who had already captured their first flames before she emerged. She was three fourths of the way done with the test when the first Novice cleared it. It was a sharp faced boy who was dressed quite a bit differently from the other Novices, so much so that Ren was surprised with himself for not having noticed him prior to him emerging first from a test. He wore grey like all other Novices, but for him, it was more like an accent, and not the dominating colour it should be. Instead, his overcoat consisted of all colours of the rainbow, weaving and intermingling, and yet not seeming out of place at all.
"Where is that Novice from, Master, the one who cleared the sensing test first, do you know? He seems quite different from the others, and yet I hadn't noticed him until now. It is odd." Ren said, turning to Darkhaven, who looked at the strangely dressed boy with a hint of distaste.
"He is part of the harmony division, the only participant, in fact." Darkhaven shook his head. "He should not have participated in this year's competition, every other ringer was taken out of it, yet he is the only Novice who currently inhabits the harmony division, and old crone Di thought that they should participate this time regardless. The boy is likely only a little weaker than young Xin Jing, but he is twice your age, young Ren." Darkhaven concluded, once again shaking his head as if this would explain everything.
Ren didn't know about the boy being almost as strong as Xin Jing, but it was undeniable that he was different from the other participants. Darkhaven still didn't answer why he had not noticed his presence, but that was fine, Ren would just have to investigate the issue by himself first, and should he then still not have an answer he would ask Darkhaven again.
Plan made, Ren drew his senses around the multicoloured patterns wearing boy. The boy was steadying himself, trying to remain ready and aware for the next part of the trial to be faced with confidence. His sleeves were billowing while his spirit flowed around him, on the hem of his outer robe the letters for 'Di' were stitched in gold.
Concentrating as he was, it became immediately apparent to Ren why he had not taken note of him. Not only his spirit, his entire presence seemed to become one with the surroundings, but that was also not completely right. It was more like him imitating the surroundings, camouflaging himself. It was a technique that was extremely dissimilar to what he usually associated with hiding, and it also made him wonder why it was the first time he saw it before. Was there a special trick to it? Probably.
Now that he had seen it in action though, Ren was confident that he would be able to pick it out easily enough again. No matter how hard someone tried, there would be discrepancies after all, and there would not always be a crowd to divide his attention to this extent.
After another minute, the boy in the circle was already beginning to relax, a part of the formation coalesced, forming another, smaller, circle inside from which an exact copy of the boy emerged. The only differences were the clothes and eyes, both pitch black and not showing a speck of life.
The two started fighting immediately.
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She was finally making progress. The illusions might have stopped her, but the test of sensing was laughable by comparison. She collected the little black flames that were hiding from her with the ease of plucking apples from a tree.
When she collected the last of the flames, Ji Daiyu allowed herself a small respite and looked around at her competitors. She could see no one but herself standing to face the next test. Hope bloomed in her chest, like flowers in spring.
'I can still do it, I can still win, and everything will be right.' Her eyes blazed, and she gripped her sword tighter than ever before in her life. "I will not fail." She whispered, and lowered her centre of gravity. Her opponent formed itself before her and Ji Daiyu was ready.